Switched outlet needs to be on for an exterior light switch to work; how can I fix this?

Question

I have two switches in a box connected via a jumper wire; one for an outside light and one for the top plug of a wall receptacle. My problem is that the receptacle switch has to be switched on in order for the exterior light switch to work.
What's confusing me is that the line in comes to the exterior light switch first, so if I were expecting any odd situation, it would be the reverse (e.g. the exterior light switch needing to be on for the switched receptacle to work).
The 110 line in connected to the exterior light switch is indicated by the red arrow below:

Then there's a jumper line that runs from the same screw of the exterior light switch over to the switch that controls the top receptacle of the outlet (blue arrow above).
The green arrow on the above photo is the load out to the exterior light.
Here is what the switch for the receptacle looks like:

Again, the blue arrow denotes the jumper wire coming from the powered, exterior light switch, and the green arrow denotes the connection to the top plug of the receptacle.
How can I fix this so that I can turn the exterior light on without having to switch on the receptacle?
(NB: not shown is a 3rd, 3-way switch in between these two that controls a ceiling light -- it is not connected to these two in any way other than all neutrals/grounds in the box being gathered together, respectively.)

ThreePhaseEel · Accepted Answer

You have the wrong wire identified as your always hot
The problem you have is that the last installer who was in the box made the same mistake and identified the incorrect wire as the always-hot for this circuit.  In particular, based on what happened when you moved the jumper to the other terminal on the switch for the receptacle, the wire pointed to by the red arrow in your pictures isn't the always-hot coming into the box, but the switched-hot going off to the receptacle. In turn, this makes the wire pointed to by the green arrow in your pictures the always-hot coming into the box.
So, you can fix this by undoing the wire nut on your pigtailing job, removing the wire from the top screw of the switch for the receptacle, nutting that wire in with your pigtails, and landing the wire you undid from the pigtailing job on the now-free top screw of the switch for the receptacle.  Once that's done, you can button the box up, turn the breaker on, and enjoy your lightswitches!

Switched outlet needs to be on for an exterior light switch to work; how can I fix this?

One Answer

You have the wrong wire identified as your always hot

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